GEOGRAPHIC NOTES 



295 



Tiiic output of coal in the United States in 1899 for the first time exceeded the 

 output in every other country. The mines ofthe United States yielded 258,539,650 

 net tons of the total production of the world, 775,000,000 net tons, or more than 

 one-third. The figures given in a recent bulletin prepared by Mr 0. P. Austin, 

 Chief of the Bureau of Statistics ofthe Treasury Department, show that the in- 

 crease of production in Great Britain, tliough very great, is not keeping pace 

 with that of Gei'many and the United States. The average annual rate of increase 

 for the 30 years ending with 1897 was for the United Kingdom, 2.33 per cent, 

 for Germany, 4.60 per cent, and for the United States, 6.64 per cent. Austria- 

 Hungary, France, Belgium, Russia, and Japan, in the order named, are the 

 next largest producers. 



England has always maintained that Morocco, or at least that part of it adja- 

 cent to the Strait of Gibraltar, must remain neutral. It is now hinted, how- 

 ever, that she may assent to the acquisition by Spain of a slice of territory along 

 the northern coast, allowing France to have the rest ofthe country, in case the 

 {)artition of Morocco comes up 

 for settlement within a year, 

 as seems not unlikely. The 

 French recently occupied Igli, 

 on the border of Morocco and 

 Algeria, and are said to be 

 massing troops on the fron- 

 tier — a proceeding that is nat- 

 urally exciting the Moors, who 

 are fiercely jealous of their in- 

 dependence and not easily con- 

 trolled by the government. 

 Under a good government Mo- 

 rocco might become one of 

 the most ])rosperous parts of 

 Africa. Her })eople show capabilities of much development. She has rich 

 resources in iron, tin, and copper, and splendid forests of oak and pine, while 

 her soil yields all the cereals of warm and te:nperate climates. Tiie jtrincipal 

 harbors are Tangier, on the Strait of Gibraltar, and Tetuan, on the Mediterra- 

 nean. On tl)e Atlantic coast there is no first-class harbor, though Rabat and 

 Mogador are of some importance. The Spanish town of Ceuta occupies a nar- 

 row peninsula at the east end of the strait. The city of Morocco was founded 

 nine hundred years ago, and during tiie thirteenth and fourteenth centurieS 

 was a famous seat of learning to which the Moors of Spain .sent their children. 

 Barely 50,000 inhabitants now represent the 10(1,000 lioiises and 700,000 people 

 which it once Ijoasted. In any i>roposed partition of Morocco the desiderate re- 

 sistance of six million Moors, Arabs, and Berbers will have to be reckoned witli. 



Thkkk men are aiming for the North Pole this summer. The J)uke of 

 Abruzzi, after a winter of exploration in Kranz Josef Land, planned to advance 

 from that group of islands. This route to the North I'ole is considered the 



